Parsippany Comedian Capturing Comedy on DVD at Suppa's

For Parsippany’s Joe Conte, his show Saturday night at Suppa’s is more than just another night of comedy. Conte will be recording content for this first ever DVD in Pine Brook at the show.

“I am always the last person to do things like this,” Conte said. “People ask me for something to buy and so I decided to do this.” 

Conte has been performing since August 1999 and he was inspired to get into it, after giving a best man’s toast at a friend’s wedding.

“It just kind of clicked with me,” he said.

He explained that he understood, that for him, it was not a great leap to entertain 150 people at wedding to the small crowd of a club. He began doing open mic nights at clubs in New Brunswick and soon found himself with a career.

“When I was in high school, I was not the class comedian,” he said. “The class comedian was some jock who pulled his pants down at the right time. I was a quiet person, but I could make my friends laugh.”

Conte’s style is more based on improvisation than scripted jokes. He explained that some comedians will write out their jokes word for word, but he is more comfortable working in a spontaneous manner.

“When I get the idea for a topic, it just comes to me,” he said. “I am inspired by something that happens to me, something I read or something I see on television. I will jot down the bullet point of what I want to talk about and then work from there.”

He said he would perform the joke several times at open-mic nights to get the cadence and the rhythm down.

“Probably by about the ninth or tenth time I have told the joke, then I will know whether it works or not,” Conte said.

Conte said that he doesn’t have a style as much as he has personality.

“I don’t know that I have a style,” he said. “I mean people ask me what my stage name is and I always say ‘Joe Conte.’ It may be cliché, but I have a very self-deprecating sense of humor and I just come out and talk about my opinions and insecurities that I have had since I was 6 years old.” 

Conte said this is typical for many comedians, and after spending over a decade in the business, he is still amazed at the psyche of the comedian. He said comedians, like him, will continue to improve their skills and perfect their craft, but do it with the specter of insecurity on their backs. 

“Comedians are the only people I know that think they can entertain a room of 500 people, but are frightened their act will not fly,” he said. “The comedian will pray, ‘Please let them like my act.’ This is typical.” 

Conte said that he expects to have fun with the audience on Saturday.

“I am looking forward to this,” he said. “Suppa’s is right on the border of Parsippany and I have many people alerting me they will attend and I know Joe will do a great job taping the show for the DVD so this will be fun for everybody.”